House of Eratosthenes

I just finished checking out what Debbie Schlussel had to say about several of my blogging compatriots. It took me a few minutes, not a whole lot, but it isn’t an exercise I wish to repeat because I have to go to work.

Unfortunately, no sooner had that been done than I see by my e-mail updates that Sammy Benoit is also complaining Debbie Schlussel is sliming him.

I just don’t have the time for this.

My comments at Cassy’s place are as follows:

The one point to be made about all this, is this is my experience when I did the appropriate homework and made every attempt to give Debbie the benefit of the doubt. I read HER material, and when I was done reviewing it, there was NOTHING there. I’ve had this experience with Schlussel before. She holds a law degree from the University of Wisconsin. The woman cannot logically make a point. Speculating on it, I would say she possesses a number of appealing attributes that bring all kinds of coveted credentials and accolades to people who don’t deserve the privileges that go with them, and do not command the talents they should require. She’s female, attractive in her own way, skinny, blond, driven and mean.

In high school, every girl-clique has a ringleader, the “Alpha male” of the group. This one has the final word on who’s on the outs, who’s headed there, what boy is to be thought-of as cute. She has the final word on these things because she is accustomed to having it, and for no other reason; and she’s female cute skinny driven & mean. My speculation is — that’s Debbie. When she presents an argument, it all seems to boil down to “You’re not evaluating what she has to say, she’s evaluating you. You’ve got one shot to show Debbie you’re a decent person, and if you fuck it up you must be an antisemite.” And what I really find disturbing and troubling is, I’ll bet my last $10 that in the course of pursuing that law degree, this worked out for her just fine. Everything is a 15-year-old-girl argument. “She didn’t do what I said! We’ll all just HATE her forEVER!!!”

Great googly moogly Deb, try decaf.

Over in Europe, in several countries it is illegal to deny the holocaust took place. Now, I really don’t have much information about who, if anybody at all, is being prosecuted over this. Probably the dregs of society, and maybe the streets are actually safer because of those laws.

But…oh dear, here goes my name, onto that list…it is a blessing that such a law is, for now, unworkable here in the United States. It’s not just the free speech aspect of it. Such a law encourages people to think the Debbie Schlussel way. You know, you have these “pure” people who are right about everything, and impure people who are wrong about everything. You become an impure person if you are connected to another impure person, or connected to a person who is connected to a person who is connected to a person who is impure. Once that happens you can’t ever be right about anything ever again. You’re an intellectual leper.

I’m sure, if the issue is holocaust denial, in some cases that is entirely appropriate. But this is not the way grown-up adults do their reasoning. People are people, ideas are ideas. Like the guy on the radio said a few months ago: “If you can somehow manage to find, in this day and age, a real, live, Nazi from Hitler’s Third Reich and everything…and that Nazi happened to be opposed to the Obama health care plan. The Nazi might be right, I’d say, about that one, solitary thing.”

Schlussel is bright in her own way, but she’s allowing whatever legal talents she has, to atrophy. By “legal” I really mean forensic; conducting rational discourse about a point. She has allowed herself to become accustomed, for how long I do not know, to an environment in which once you “slime” whoever your opposition is in the moment, the job’s done and you move on. And it says something when she goes on the warpath, and suddenly everyone who’s anyone finds themselves tossed into the Schlussel-icky-people-barrel within 24 hours of each other. Guess I’m headed there myself.

She is, in the final analysis, becoming precisely what she hates. That’s a shame.

First they came for Cassy Fiano and I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t Cassy Fiano…then they came for Emily Zanotti and Sammy Benoit…

Why should I care about what this Debbie Schlussel thinks or says? I’ve never read or listened to anything she’s said or done, so she can go fly a kite. I think the conservative bloggers are making too much of this (yes, I’ve noticed this subject on several sites). You’re giving this harpy the attention she wants. She’s obviously an idiot, so why give her a standard she doesn’t deserve?
- Mat | 06/18/2010 @ 08:07
Good question.

I don’t play the game of declaring who is to be ignored, either actively or passively. Schlussel can keep that for herself (although she’s clearly dedicated to the active side of that). I figure people can inspect what they want to inspect and ignore what they want to ignore, and that’s exactly what they’re going to do.

Schlussel’s disease is infecting many right now, which makes her important. At the same time, very few of progressed to her advanced stage in this disease…which makes her even more important. Most of the people who do all this loud arguing we’re hearing right now, day and night, talk a good game about discussing our differences, making sure all sides are heard. But they don’t mean it. They’re just like Debbie Schlussel, picking fights with people, defining them into some sort of illegitimacy/non-existence, zillions at a time, until there’s nobody left. And then they call what’s left “everybody,” as in “everybody knows this person over here sucks.”

Also, Schlussel has earned, with some legitimacy, a high profile and a loyal following. She has done some good work with exposing the invasion of radical whackadoodle Islam in America. She’s an occasional guest on Fox, she does have that law degree, according to her biography she speaks several languages…and when people who achieve all these things turn out to be shallow thinkers, I personally find that interesting. And it is important.

We put all this weight on choosing wonderful, accomplished “leaders” for all the various responsibilities we think really matter — yet, when you stop everything and gaze up at the tippy top of this society we’ve built, in the halls of our state legislatures and our Congress, you see a bunch of people nobody likes. I’ve come to see Schlussel as a kindred spirit for Obama and all the lefties running everything now — ooh, if that doesn’t get me a nasty link, comment or e-mail, nothing will. But I do see the connection. All these people are supposed to be so smart, and it seems the first thing they want to do is define who their enemies are, give ’em a big fuck-you, and make sure everyone can see them doing it. That is apparently their idea of coming up with policies and ideas that will help “everybody.” And they always end up doing these juvenile things. Here’s Debbie making fun of the way Cassy looks when she wears a short denim miniskirt. And it isn’t just Debbie Schlussel.

I do see your point. If it was just her and nobody else, I’ll probably leave it all on the cutting room floor.
- mkfreeberg | 06/18/2010 @ 09:11
Fair enough. Like I said, I haven’t really been following this woman, so I really didn’t know what the big deal was. To me it was like “oh, another big-wig wannabe spouted off on something…what else is new?” Also, it seemed to me that the bloggers were squabbling like little children yelling “look what she said about me!”

As for the lawyer bit, I must admit that that title no longer fills me with any sense of awe. Considering that the vast majority of our politicians are lawyers, I take a look around the country and wonder why they’re given so much respect. If any other profession acted as corrupt and incompetent as they, they’d be the laughingstock of the country. Us Americans are kinda odd about this sort of thing though. And yes, I realize they’re laughing all the way to the bank.

It’s all moot to me. I’ve said that this will all eventually end bloodily anyway. More’s the pity.
- Mat | 06/18/2010 @ 09:32
I saw this bit on a link from Cassy’s Facebook thingy. I can’t imagine a universe in which one could consider Cassy “anti-semetic”. It’s insane.

I tend to feel quite protective of Cassy — not that she needs much of it. She’s a sweet, decent woman.

Debbie used to be someone I’d pay attention to from time to time, but over the last few years she’s lost the bulk of her credibility, IMHO, over stupid things like this.
- philmon | 06/18/2010 @ 19:38

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Mount Schlussel is Erupting
Friday, June 18th, 2010